There are plenty of parking spots available near the trailhead, though make sure you have $5 of cash to buy a permit at the parking lot. 

There was a fire in the canyon that pretty much destroyed all the trees and greenery. Epic, horror movie style views, and the strong smell of smoke create a unique atmosphere. The first part of the trail is very nice, but then it became harder and harder to find the trail. I strongly recommend having a map and gps. Without then we would, probably, be lost. 

We had to cross a small river multiple times, so it would be great to have hiking poles. 

At the end there is no views at all. I mean, the trail ends in the forest, and that’s it. So, there is no point to hike it until the very end.

Overall, I don’t recommend this hike, because the trail was destroyed by fire, and overgrown in some places. 

This hike is through terrain that was burned in last Summer's fires, so at some points you are walking on burned ground, and can brush against burned branches, leaving charcoal marks on clothes.  So you need to wash your boots and clothes well after this hike!  The trail is mostly level, and we only went about 2 miles as it petered out in shrubbery.  It's possible to go further but we had a leashed dog which made it difficult so chose to turn around.  We saw only three other people the entire hike.  Much of the trail is in shade but part of the trail cuts across scree on the north side, fully in sun on our clear day.  Some of the trail is hard to find with the burn, so we were forced to make our own way through burned areas at times.  It was very cold starting out, low 30s, and gradually warmed a bit in the later afternoon. Gloves and hats needed!  We arrived at the well-marked gravel trail head about 11:30 and started hiking around 12, then returned at 2:30, so a relatively short hike. The scenery is spectacular due to the contrast of live plants with the burned soil and trees/shrubs.  Part of the south wall of the canyon is fully burned, making the many criss-crossing animal trails much more visible than usual. We have been to this trail previously several times and this was one of the more interesting hikes due to the fire impacts.

Ethan, Brenda, Jonah, Karen, & I took a walk up Umtanum Canyon on this sunny, cool day.  We walked about 1/2 mile beyond the second stream crossing, then backtracked to the creek and climbed up to our favorite lunch spot on a buttress overlooking the canyon.  It was pleasant in the sun except when there was a cool breeze and we stayed about an hour before heading back.  Most of the leaves were brown from the fire, but many trees appear to have survived and many of the shrubs are already starting to regenerate.  There were quite a few branches over the trail, but they were all easily walked around.  It will be very interesting to see what the canyon looks like next year.  There were a number of other hikers enjoying the canyon today, but we didn't see any wildlife.  The Yakima Canyon is starting to color up, but there is still lots of green in there.  NOTE:  The Umtanum Recreation Area (parking lot & footbridge to the canyon) will be closed for renovations starting tomorrow (10/26) until the end of May 2021.

After setting up camp at Big Pines CG in Yakima Canyon, we walked a little over a mile in Umtanum Canyon which was badly burned in the Evans Canyon fire. The Canyon is pretty much torched and many aspen leaves are fried, but there are areas of new growth and it appears most of the aspen will survive. One can now see the other side of the creek where an apple tree was loaded with red apples. On our return to the TH we saw 3 deer who appeared to be enjoying fallen apples from an apple tree near the first aspen grove. Soon 6 more deer joined them and they all ran up the hill. The Umtanum Recreation Area will be closed to public access from 10-25-20 until 5-14-21 so that  crews can replace the bridge deck and railing and put in new support beams.

I had wanted to do this hike for a long time, maybe get to the falls. Once Igot there, oarked and crossed the cute suspension  bridge, I realized this was one of the places that had burned, at least partially, this summer. There is a strong smell of burnt wood plus a ton of ash material. The sights are pretty heart breaking, plus there was a 45-50 mph wind, so progress was slow. My eyes got so filles with ash I turned back. There was a tad of color by the creek,  but lots of fallen burnt trees on the trail.

This place will need a few years of healing...